Simon Rex Says British Tabloids Offered Him $70,000 To Lie About His Relationship With Meghan Markle

Simon Rex is ready to come clean. The 45-year-old actor is admitting new details about the nature of his relationship with Meghan Markle. In an interview on the “Hollywood Raw” podcast, Rex reveals that British tabloids offered him money to exaggerate how romantic his relationship with Markle had been, according to Us Weekly.

“Nothing happened. We never even kissed. It was just, like, we hung out once in a very non-datey way. She was just someone I had met on a TV show and we got lunch. That was the extent of it,” Rex said on the podcast.

Rex had previously been labeled as one of Markle’s ex-boyfriends, but it seems that description was not at all accurate. The two met while they were filming the short-lived TV series Cuts in 2005. The show was about the challenges a group of employees faced while working at a barber shop in Baltimore.

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After the former Suits star was thrust into fame because of her engagement to Prince Harry, the British tabloids ran a number of stories about Markle in connection with her exes. At the time, The Sun published a report suggesting that Rex had actually ruined his chances with Markle once she discovered that he had acted in adult films.

“When that story broke, a couple British tabloids offered to pay me a lot of money to say a lie that we actually hooked up. I said no to a lot of money because I didn’t feel right lying and f*king up the royal f*king family,” Rex said in the interview.

Harry and Meghan have a notoriously tumultuous history with the British press. Before they announced that they would be stepping away from the royal family, Harry felt the need to issue public statement calling British tabloids out for the overwhelmingly negative nature of their coverage of his wife. Rex’s story of attempted bribery adds more evidence to the notion that the British press had it out for Meghan.

Meghan’s treatment in the press is widely regarded to be one of the reasons that the Sussexes decided to step back from their positions as senior members of the royal family. Following a final round of official duties as royals earlier this month, the couple has returned to Canada, where they are currently in self-quarantine as they deal with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and attempt to raise their son, Archie.